For the gravy

Onions are endlessly versatile and an essential ingredient in countless recipes. Native to Asia…

2 tsp plain flour

2 tsp ready-made English mustard

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce

600ml chicken or vegetable stock

Method

Preheat the oven to fan 200C/conventional 220C/ gas 7. Sift the flour and a make a well in the centre and crack in the egg. Beat lightly,then gradually pour in half the milk and water, beating all the time to form a smooth,thick batter. Continue for 2 minutes,then stir in the remaining liquid. (The batter can be made several hours ahead of time, although contrary to popular opinion it is not improved by standing.)

Wrap a bacon rasher around each sausage then put them, spaced apart, in a large roasting tin (preferably metal). Scatter over the onion and drizzle with oil. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the bacon and sausages are starting to colour and the onion is tinged brown at the edges.

Remove from the oven and quickly pour the batter over the sausages. Return to the oven for a further 35-40 minutes until the batter is crisp and well risen.

Meanwhile,make the gravy. Heat the vegetable oil in a small pan, add the onion and fry gently for 5 minutes until softened and lightly coloured. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Add the mustard, Worcestershire or soy sauce and stock and bring to the boil, stirring. Simmer for 15 minutes, then taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Serve the toad with cabbage or broccoli and lashings of gravy.

Comments (78)

Terrible, terrible recipe. The batter measurements are just wrong, even without using all the 300ml of liquid the batter was too thin. Despite being in the oven for 45 minutes the batter didn't cook through and was just mush and was entirely inedible. From now on I'm sticking to my trusted nigella recipe for yorkshires!

Thought i'd just comment with a better recipe for the batter. It's easy batter as you only need equal quantities of each ingredient. Use a cup (the American style measuring cups are fantastic and only cost a couple of quid from the supermarket), a mug may be too much but a large tea cup would be perfect. Use a cup full of plain flour, a cup full of cracked open eggs, and a cup full of milk and water, I find half and half milk to water is perfect. Add salt and herbs like parsley whilst you are mixing. Make the batter an hour before you use it and whack it in the fridge for an hour. Make sure the fat in the pan is boiling hot before you add the batter. I personally cook the sausages in bacon for 15 mins in oven first, then I chop them in half and use a deep muffin tin to make 16 individual toad in the holes. The batter rises far better than in a large tin and they look lovely!

I had to top up the batter with more flour when making this recipe to stop it having a soggy bottom, just enough so that the mixture is thick and not runny. I also found that heating the oil in the bottom of the dish first really helped too.

I didn't put onions in (as neither me nor my friends like them) and have used both Cumberland and Lincolnshire sausages in the past to give more flavour.

I absolutely love this and my friends insist I make this whenever I offer to cook so it must be good!

So delicious! However, I found that there was way too much liquid, and had to restart the batter. I initially doubled it and kept the ratios, but then one-and-a-halved it and only used 300ml of the water/milk mix. Much better!

Oh my goodness, just finished making and trying to eat this, sorry BBC Good Food this recipe is just awful. It didn't rise and it was just soggy all the way though. I tried your other recipe for Yorkshire puddings for Christmas Dinner and it was a major hit! But this recipe was one serious failure! I think it needs more eggs to rise properly. never mind if at first you don't succeed try and try again!

I would love to use these recipes for my family, but the measurements and oven temperatures don't make any sense to me. Could you possibly translate into american measurements and temps alongside or in brackets. Thanks

Cooked for a little longer to firm up a little given the earlier feedback about soggy bottoms, that being said my husband likes a puddingy Yorkshire so was very happy with the result.I fried off the mushrooms and sausages for a few mins and then mixed the onions into the base together with a few chopped thyme leave and some S&P which gave a lovely flavour. Added an extra stock cube to beef up the gravy a bit. Just right for a cold night, I'll cook again.

DO NOT MAKE THIS..... As per the majority of reviews, the batter did not rise and was just an eggy mess. I wish I had read the reviews first but didn't think anything could go wrong. Horrible Sunday dinner :0(

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Questions (0)

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Tips (2)

carmodyjane25th Aug, 2014

Make the following changes for a delicious Toad in the Hole:Use 150-170g flour (not 100g)Use 2 eggs (not 1)Optional: mix some herbs into the batter (a sprinkle of thyme and/or mixed herbs)

The above will give you a crispy topping and spongy inner that's perfect for mopping up gravy.

It's obvious that the batter mix ratios are way out on this recipe - I use equal quantities of flour, milk and eggs - 1/2 cup of each works for this recipe.Add sage, mustard powder and plenty of salt and pepper for a well seasoned Yorkshire Pudding.Also, if you cook the sausages in the oven while the fat for the pudding is heating you're likely to burn them, I prefer to grill them separately and add them to the already smoking oil just a couple of minutes before adding the batter mix.Finally, to make a really good onion gravy will take much longer than the cooking time for the Toad - start it well in advance.In conclusion : While the basic recipe idea is good, the execution is all wrong. No wonder folks are struggling with it and posting negative comments.

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